1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile harvester and more specifically to mobile hay bale retrieving loading and unloading platforms for receiving already formed bales from a baler. The unloading platform is slanted to be in contact with the ground for discharging the bales while the mobile harvester is moving.
The harvester is particularly suitable for large quantities of hay bales which may be discharged on the ground at any suitable location. The system allows every discharge operation to take place within a specific area so that the hay bales may be picked up by a non-mobile transfering device. Considering the large quantity of hay bales which may be accumulated by the novel harvester, the platforms are provided with conveyors for moving the hay bales from one platform to another and finally for moving all the hay bales from a slanted platform onto the ground at specific locations.
2. Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,275 describes a tiltable platfrom hay bale accumulator which has a flat static platform on which the hay bales are slidden by being pushed one against the other. The same and single platform is provided with a tilting mechanism for dropping the hay bales when the platform is fully loaded.
In this patent, the surface of the platform is smooth and relatively small so that the hay bales will slide out of the platform when the latter is fully loaded and tilted. The hay bales will be dropped at random on the field while the pulling tractor moves over the field and whenever the platform is loaded.